The project has advanced our understanding of what is holding back growth in Europe and across the advanced world. The two major factors are innovation and management practices. The work shows the importance of removing barriers to talented children from disadvantaged groups (by class, gender and race) from pursuing an inventor career. Improving the acquisition of human capital will increase technological innovation but also managerial innovation which appears to be responsible for about half the productivity gap between the US and many European countries. Our work on Germany, however, suggests that improved management is not just about improving the European skills - it is also how people are combined together. Improving management practices needs structural reform such as greater openness - to trade, competition, immigration and foreign investment. Excessive regulation is a barrier in some countries - such as France and Southern Europe where tough labour rules dissuade successful firms from growing. Financial reform and regulation matters too, but to a lesser extent than these other structural factors, even for a country like the UK which is most reliant on the financial sector.
